


Home Is Where The Heart Is

by novocainlullaby



Category: The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 18:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6387721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novocainlullaby/pseuds/novocainlullaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soda has his life planned out--Cherry on the other hand, doesn't really know what she wants until she's found it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Is Where The Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> Established Cherry/Soda based on conversations with a RP partner, because my love for these two is very immense.

It’d been roughly a year or so after everything went wrong. A year since Bob had threatened those kids and ended up getting his life ended in return. A year since that church burned down and took Johnny way too young. A year since Dallas couldn’t **_take_** it any more and went down with them.

A lot had happened.

Too much for Cherry to count on both hands.

Things had only mildly settled between the social groups. Sure, there were still rumbles, disputes, and prejudices–but she didn’t think they were so bad.

However, that might just have been because of the man lying beside her.

He really was a doll, that Sodapop Curtis. She never imagined herself being fortunate enough to even speak to him more than just brief conversations at the DX, but after helping Ponyboy out, she found herself growing particularly close to him.

Now, you would’ve told Cherry Valance a year ago that she’d end up in love with a Greaser, she would’ve scoffed in your face and went back to Bob’s letterman jacket.

But, that was a year ago.

Her relationship with Soda had progressed roughly three months after everything had happened, and at that time she didn’t even really know what was happening. She still mourned Bob like there was no tomorrow, and she knew that he still yearned for Sandy late at night. She wasn’t mad–wasn’t jealous. It’d been tough for everyone.

And two months after that, after the late night phone calls and her hanging around the Curtis household, he finally asked her on a date. A real date! Boy, it’d been a while since she’d been on one of those. Sure, she and Bob had gone on dates. After a while of being together, he just didn’t seem to bother any more. Soda was adamant on trying to do something as often as they could between his work schedule and her school schedule, and they managed to get together quite often despite their hectic lives. Not to mention when it was cheer season for her–boy, was that a battle.

It’d been a real rush into things. Cherry knew that as soon as he told her he loved her three months into dating, told her on an autumn night in the park on one of their dates. He’d told her how beautiful she was–and it just…slipped out. She had been speechless–obviously. She knew he meant it, knew he wasn’t lying to her. Still, it took her a tender kiss and a few minutes to process things to reciprocate the words.

In the following weeks, he enrolled into the army. She couldn’t believe it, really. She knew he always spoke of it, always spoke of joining so he could see the world. But with her around, she couldn’t help but feel like..he _might’ve_ changed his mind.

Maybe.

The first few months were difficult. **_Extremely_** difficult. She only saw him once or twice if she was lucky, in the six months he had departed.

However, things got a little better in the following months. He was finally home for several months, and the first thing he did upon returning in the March was propose to her. They hadn’t even been dating for a year yet–and still, she accepted almost immediately. Maybe it was the burst of emotion in her heart after not seeing him for such a long time, or maybe she really did love him.

To this day, it’s still a little unclear.

He was called back for another three months, and she was thankful this one was shorter, but that didn’t keep her from feeling like it was an eternity without him.

They’d had a lovely summer wedding upon his return, despite Cherry complaining about the humidity frizzing her hair out. He still thought she was the most beautiful thing–photographing her every chance he got. The ceremony had solidified her feelings for the moment. She didn’t think anything could go wrong.

It wasn’t until the middle of another one of his absences did she start to question things.

Now, in the middle of November at the early hours of the morning, she looked to the man beside her as he slept.

Did she love him? Why had they gotten married so soon, why could he never be _home_?

The movement of her knees bundling to her chest must have moved the bed a little too much, because he was stirring beside her shortly after.

“Cherry?” He rumbled, voice thick with sleep. “Baby, it’s not even daylight yet. You doin’ okay?”

Silence was what greeted him, and that’s when he propped himself up onto his elbow and rubbed the sleep from his eyes to fully focus on her.

“Cherry?”

This time she turned her head to meet his gaze with hesitance, opening her mouth to speak, but finding her throat drying out. She loved him–she knew she did. Maybe it just wasn’t right for them.

Not right now.

“I hate this, Soda.” She began quietly, unsure if he’d even hear her. “I hate sayin’ goodbye to you for months at a time. I hate bein’ in an empty house all the time. I’m not **_happy_** ,” She hated telling him that, regretting the words as soon as they spilled from her mouth. By then, it was too late, and she was going off now.

“I don’t know what else to do. Every day I have to wake up and worry if you’ll be comin’ home next time. Your letters help, but I can’t keep a marriage up based on _one_ letter _once_ every _two_ _weeks_. It makes my head spin. I get sick worryin’ about you, hopin’ the police don’t show up at the door tellin’ me that you died overseas or somethin’. I just **can’t** do it any more, Sodapop, I **_can’t_** **_do_** **_it_**.”

He couldn’t stop staring at her, staring in disbelief. He could see the tears shining in her eyes through the dim moonlight peeking in the windows. “Cherry, I–”

She pushed away from him as he tried to wrap an arm around her, and he swallowed down over the lump in his throat. “Cherry, you gotta listen to me. I know it’s hard right now–”

She cut him off immediately with a **_snap_**. “You have no **_idea_** how hard it is, Soda! You have no idea!”

“Of _course_ I do! You think I like going off with my life on the line thinking I won’t come home to you? You think I enjoy being away from the love of my life from months at a time, not being able to see you? That I don’t think about dying and you having to go on without me? God…Cherry, I love you, but I hate to break it to you that the world doesn’t always revolve around _you_. I know it’s hard but there’s nothing we can do.” He returned, voice shaky as he looked over her, trying to figure her out, trying to assume her next actions, her next words.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have done this,” she said quietly, ripping her gaze from his. “I think we stepped into something neither of us were ready to handle.”

His heart sunk. Never in a million years could he have prepared himself for the heartbreak the words brought him, and he shook his head. “No, no, Cherry don’t say that–” he pleaded, taking ahold of her hand tightly.

Her head hung low, feeling herself grow cold under his touch. Her tears spilled freely over her cheeks now, and she shook her head. “I don’t know what to do. I _don’t_. I’m at a loss in my life, I don’t feel like I have a home any more, Soda. I left my mom and dad back in Tulsa, and you left your brothers. This all feels so surreal. I want to be able to enjoy being married to you. I want to see you every morning when I wake up, I want to be able to cook dinner for you and still go on dates and..” She trailed off, biting her lip.

“I know,” he murmured, bringing her knuckles up to his lips. He pressed a few kisses to her skin, closing his eyes. “Please don’t leave me, Cherry.” He begged, not ashamed in the slightest to be doing so, either. “I don’t know much–you know I ain’t that smart. But I **_do_** know that I love you, more than anything in this whole world. Hell, you are my whole world. Why don’t you follow with us?” He offered, picking his head up.

“When we’re stationed they’ve got these–these apartment type deals that the wives can live in.”

Why hadn’t he thought of that months ago?

She turned to look down at him with a sniffle, wiping her eyes. “Will I get to see you?” She asked quietly.

He nodded, sitting up and bringing her into his chest. “Yeah. I’ll visit you as much as I can, and we’ll be able to travel the world together. Oh, doll, it’ll be perfect. We can find the local parks and beaches–what have you–and go out every night. I can’t promise you a grand hotel or anything, but we’ll be there together.”

“That’s all I need,” she said after a few moments of silence, curling her petite frame into his hold, eyes closing against his shoulder. “I’m sorry–” she began, but he cut her off with a little shush.

“Don’t be, I’m sorry that I brought all this on you. I know it’s been tough, I can’t imagine it. But, there’s no one I’d rather have at my side than you. I married you for a reason, do you know why?” He asked, and when she looked up and shook her head he couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s because I love you, and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

That made her smile ever so softly, turning back into him to breathe him in.

“We’ll make a permanent home somewhere, Cherry. I promise. One day, it’ll be a white-picket fence with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We’ll be real fancy. We’ll live wherever you want to–you, me, and the kids.”

“Kids?” Her head picked up, and he grew a little red.

“I hope so, one day.” She gave a faint smile, nodding. “I don’t know where we’ll end up from here, Soda. ‘M not a mind reader. I just know that wherever we go–I’ll be the luckiest girl in the world, ‘cause I’ve got you right beside me. We could end up in Spain, Iowa, or even back in Oklahoma. As long as I’ve got you–I _am_ home.”

“They always say home is where the heart is, you know.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”


End file.
